Mitsubishi Clutch Slave Cylinder, Md 733620 on 2040-parts.com

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

College Exhibition: Pforzheim University Summer Degree Show 2006

Transportation Design students at Germany's Pforzheim University displayed their work in the school's summer degree show held in July, one of two graduation shows per year. The show was held in conjunction with the International Transportation Design Forum 2006, alongside work from six other international design schools. The exhibition included work from graduating Diploma and Masters students, exterior and interior projects by the 5th and 7th semester students, as well as work from students in the earlier stages of the Diploma and Masters courses.

Shelby Sued

Usually, Shelby lawsuit headlines announce that Shelby is suing someone, but here's one where someone is suing Shelby Automobiles, Inc. Stephen Becker has been an authorized Shelby dealer since 2007, having sold and delivered 49 cars between 2007 and 2010, according to the suit. Becker has sold various Shelby cars for many years before that, and says he knew Carroll Shelby as early as 1977.